Cornerstone Blogs

Written by members of our Resource Team
Membership Matters: How Cornerstone Became Our Family
September 6th, 2024
The fall of 2022 was a very difficult time for our family. My husband Sam and I had recently moved to Marion after stepping away from a ministry position that we loved. We were dealing with deeply rooted church hurt, fractured relationships and broken trust, and the death of the vision we had for our early twenties. On top of it all, I was growing sicker by the day from an undiagnosed illness that...
Let Me See Your Ways
July 26th, 2024
Friends and family are hands down what keeps me steady in this crazy life—other than God, of course. Over the years many have come and gone, but the ones who have remained all have one character trait in common: they know how to love. Not just by their words, because that is a very simple thing to master. No, these friends love first with their actions, and their words are a confirmation of who th...
Garden and Grow
June 21st, 2024
Gardening runs in my family. My grandparents had big gardens. My dad also had a garden every year until he passed. My mom has such a green thumb; she loves trying to see what she can grow and is working on having a garden in her yard, as well as helping my grandparents with their garden this year. I also share in the enjoyment of having plants around. I love watching plants grow and produce things...
Turn Signals and Guardrails
May 24th, 2024
Chances are that if you have ever been driving your car and waved at me, I didn’t notice. Now, that is not because I am oblivious to what is going on in traffic—quite the opposite. I can get so hyper-fixated on observing vehicles that the people sort of fade away. But this is not because I’m a car-nut either. Honestly, I care so little about what a person drives, I barely know what kind of make or...
The Struggle is Real
April 19th, 2024
Last Sunday morning, I was all around church as the service was happening. I ended up with my two little girls in the Family Room as Pastor Michael was nearing the end of the message, and what he said really caught my attention. I knew that I wanted to go home and listen to the rest of the sermon he preached on Psalm 51 and about David’s sin preceding his confession.For years I have struggled with...
Discipleship: It's For Everyone
March 22nd, 2024
Discipleship: It’s for Everyone!I spent at least thirty years of my life wishing I could be discipled. I don't think I'm alone in this desire. For many years, there were older women that I wanted to sit beside in the hopes that what they had would rub off on me. Unfortunately, I never had the guts nor the vocabulary to ask them. Yes, I was timid, but along with that, I was not in a church where I ...
Connection within Community: Church Small Groups
February 16th, 2024
Connection within Community: Church Small GroupsNoah Webster, in his 1828 dictionary, defines connection as “a state of being knit or fastened together.” In this definition, a bond is formed. All the way back to Genesis, we learn that human beings were not created to be alone (Genesis 2:18). When God created Eve, it was so that Adam would have a helpmate and not be alone. God knew community was vi...
Connection: How to Resist the Winter Blues
February 2nd, 2024
Connection: How to Resist the Winter Blues I leave work at 5:00 p.m. It’s already dark, it’s raining for the fourth time this week, and the trees are bare and shriveled. I pull out the weather app, and it says the low is 6 degrees. As someone who was born and raised in Florida and Alabama, this does not bode well with me. Overall, I feel the weight of an inexplicable melancholy permeating everythi...
Not Optional
January 19th, 2024
Love God. Love Others.One of the great take-aways that I have received from Cornerstone has been the “Up, Out, and In” principle of love. Loving God is upward, loving others is outward, and loving ourselves is inward. These are intrinsically tied to one another; loving God requires loving others, and loving others requires a love of self (not to be confused with worship of self, which is sinful). ...
Love Through Service
January 12th, 2024
1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known and quoted passages in the entire Bible. It’s often read at weddings or taught at youth events. It reads: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believe...
A Couple Journeys
January 5th, 2024
“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him...” Genesis 12:1-4a ESVIn the fall ...
Restful Resolutions
December 29th, 2023
New beginnings can be exciting and overflowing with anticipation, yet simultaneously intimidating and steep with challenges. As followers of Jesus, we are blessed with a different perspective on the new year than most. The world tells you that January 1st is the big opportunity to get your life together. To make it happen, rewrite your life and rewire your habits. From a surface-level view, it can...
Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
December 15th, 2023
“Like a drama unfolding, the curtain was opening; / an audience of angels was holding its breath; / a census, a manger, two travel worn strangers; / the stage was finally set; / Angels folded their wings at the throne, worshiping; / As God whispered, I love you, my Son; / Jesus took off His crown and laying it down; / Said, Father, Thy will be done; // The time had now come for God's only Son; / T...
No Trust, No Peace
December 8th, 2023
Welcome to Advent week 2! As I read the texts leading up to the Birth of Jesus, I try to place myself in the shoes of those that God is interacting with. Sometimes that takes a lot more cultural and historical context to sort out all the nuances. But there are always aspects that we can relate to more readily. These are real people with real problems and experiences, just like us.For example, it t...
Advent: A Purpose-Filled Tradition
December 1st, 2023
I grew up as a true Southern Baptist—I’m talking a monthly-potluck-eating, wooden-pew-sitting, Alabama-boondocks-living Southern Baptist. I thought I knew everything there was to know about church by the time I got to grade school. You can imagine my surprise during my junior year of high school when my youth pastor introduced our church to a season called Advent. I had never heard of this traditi...